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BRAINTREE -- A noted figure in local Catholic education who led her alma mater through a period of unparalleled growth as its president and who helped two archbishops steer the Archdiocese of Boston through a tumultuous period in its history will be stepping aside next year.

Mary Jane England will be stepping down as president of Regis College, a Catholic liberal arts and sciences institution in Weston, in June 2011. England, a 1959 graduate of Regis and its first lay president, was given a 10-year contract when she took the helm at the local Catholic college in 2001.

A search for her replacement is being conducted, she said.

“We’ve had some difficult and historic decisions to make, but here Regis stands, serving multicultural, diverse and intergenerational student populations, guiding them in pathways toward the professional success they seek, and creating curricular options that meet the needs of the contemporary marketplace,” England said in a media release issued by the college. “We have expanded our graduate programs, broadened our commitments to intergenerational learning.”

England, a trained psychiatrist who worked in the public health field before becoming president of Regis, said she hopes to continue her career in health policy and public health. She said she does not have any specific plans yet.

However, she said she hopes to continue actively assisting the Boston archdiocese.